Ahead of today’s RSPB AGM, Martin Harper posted a very robust blog about the RSPB’s position on driven grouse shooting (click here). Just as I did yesterday, Martin asked the question whether there are any grouse moors out there that do all the right things. He clearly doesn’t know of any (which makes licensing a…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Two AGMs – H&OT
Today it is the Hawk and Owl Trust’s AGM. On the H&OT website is their annual report which has these interesting lines in it: ‘For the Hawk and Owl Trust positive habitat management away from the grouse moors will be one of the actions that will hold the key to the future of the hen…
Looking up
Botanists and entomologists spend a lot of time looking down. We birders spend a lot of time looking up – but my advice to a new birder would be to look up even more. And it’s so much more worthwhile than in the old days. There are more raptors up there. I was in the…
Just for the record
IPSO account of our successful complaint against the Daily Telegraph. And my earlier account.
Why licensing won’t work for grouse moors.
Our e-petition asking the Westminster government to ban driven grouse shooting passed 20,000 signatures recently. The momentum is growing all the time. I wonder how many signatures we will have amassed by 21 January? We’re not even half way there yet. I’m often asked why the RSPB doesn’t support a ban on driven grouse shooting…
It’s still Big Match Fortnight
Comments Off on It’s still Big Match Fortnight
Your money will immediately double in value if you give it away – if you give it to the World Land Trust before 15 October in Big Match Fortnight. In a previous blog I wrote about the work that you will help to support, and I had an email from someone suggesting that they would…
Thunderclap reaches 500 supporters
The thunderclap launched by Moving Mountains Nature Network to support our e-petition on driven grouse moors gained its 500th supporter today – well within a week of its initiation. This is far, far quicker than I had thought. In fact, I have to admit, I had looked at the figure of 500 and wondered whether…
Ilkley
I’m looking forward to talking at the Ilkley Literature Festival on Saturday. Last weekend, to coincide with the opening of the heather burning season, the Ban Bloodsports on Ilkley Moor group staged a protest outside Bradford City Hall. Maybe I’ll meet some of them at my talk and they’ll be sitting next to the local…
My home is my Rook
I’ve lived here for about 30 years but nature can give you new sights every day, not just every year. There are plenty of cheerful-sounding Jackdaws that career up and down the road, sticking to the chimneys and rooftops. I like them a lot. Just because they are here every day it doesn’t mean that…
Reviews good and bad
I review quite a lot of books on this blog, and I’ve reviewed many books elsewhere over the years too. I’ve tried to adopt an approach of describing what I like or dislike about a book – the way it’s written, illustrated and the arguments inside it – rather than saying that it is a…